April 19th, 2024
Daniel Kramer
@DKramer_This story was excerpted from Daniel Kramer’s Mariners Beat newsletter. To read the full newsletter, click here. And subscribe to get it regularly in your inbox.
SEATTLE -- George Kirby leaned into his locker as the conversation ended and knocked on a wood panel with his right fist. In a separate confab, Luis Castillo offered a similar gesture, tapping his pitching shoulder while nodding his head. A day later, Logan Gilbert weaved his lengthy fingers through his stringy locks while exhaling, a sign of the topic’s sensitivity. Bryce Miller and Emerson Hanco*ck each spoke with an air of inevitability.
In separate interviews this week, each of the Mariners’ starting pitchers offered insights to the spate of pitching injuries that seemingly took over the sport earlier this month.
“You can't really get away from it,” Gilbert said. “As a pitcher, you don't really want to think about it too much, but it's kind of the topic right now."
For a rotation touted among MLB’s best -- and has certainly looked the part over the past week -- season-ending injuries to some of the game’s top arms have offered a reminder to how vital health is to this group and how the Mariners are built.
“It’s everything,” Castillo said through an interpreter.
Yet, like most across the game, Seattle’s starting five didn’t identify a specific hypothesis -- or solution -- which in itself illustrates how complex these issues are, nearly all tied to elbow reconstruction surgeries that can take over a year to recover from.
“I don't really think anybody can pinpoint a specific thing, though, that's causing it,” Miller said. “I think it's just a combo of like, everybody pushing for velo and pushing for action, mixed with the pitch clock and the lack of grip on the ball -- there's just a lot of factors that go in. And I don't really know what you can do about it.”
Added Gilbert: “It's tough because you can't really definitively say how to stay healthy or anything, but you can take every measure to give yourself the best chance.”
The Mariners are no exception to the greater issue. Just last year, they lost Robbie Ray in his season-opening start to left flexor and Tommy John surgeries, which he’s still recovering from with his new team, the Giants. They also began 2024 without Bryan Woo, who’s sidelined with elbow inflammation but is expected to begin a Minors rehab assignment this weekend.
Remarkably, in 2022, the Mariners didn’t lose one starter to the injured list, but they say that was an extreme outlier, which also illustrates that luck plays a component.
“Injuries are part of the game,” Hanco*ck said. “The things that we put our bodies through, you’re going to go through something eventually. But the rate it’s happening, I think everyone is kind of catching on a little bit, and it’s kind of alarming.”
Where Mariners starters try to combat the issue is via meticulous arm care routines, which are distinct among each.
Kirby does Tom House-inspired shoulder exercises that he cited from the former big league pitcher who, after his playing career, pioneered many mechanical adjustments and worked with players from Nolan Ryan to Tom Brady.
“I swear by it,” Kirby said. “It’s good for shoulders, because that was kind of my problem in the Minor Leagues and injuries and stuff like that.”
Miller, among many things, does blood flow restriction therapy every day via a tourniquet, which he says helps with recovery.
“If I get hurt, and I've been doing everything I can, then it is what it is,” Miller said. “But I wouldn't want to get hurt and it happened after like I wasn’t taking care of my body.”
Castillo, interestingly, finds cardio to be most effective and regularly runs the stadium stairs.
“It's something that helps me with strength and durability in both of my legs,” Castillo said, “and that's something very important for me.”
Hanco*ck uses the offseason to increase stress tolerance on his arm, but has dialed back his day-to-day rigors after dealing with lat and shoulder injuries each of the previous three seasons.
“If you can add the volume, add the intensity and work on it in recovery,” Hanco*ck said, “when you show up to [Spring Training], you go through the season, your arm is already exposed to a lot of stress.”
Gilbert has also pulled back, but typically later in the year, after a wake-up call in his rookie season in 2021. He’s probably most well-known among this group for his unorthodox methods.
“The arm care, the recovery, all that kind of stuff helps a ton,” Gilbert said. “But at the end of the day, we don't really know how to keep everyone healthy.”
